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  <div class="section" id="file-and-directory-access">
<span id="filesys"></span><h1>11. File and Directory Access<a class="headerlink" href="#file-and-directory-access" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>The modules described in this chapter deal with disk files and directories.  For
example, there are modules for reading the properties of files, manipulating
paths in a portable way, and creating temporary files.  The full list of modules
in this chapter is:</p>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html">11.1. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pathlib</span></tt> &#8212; Object-oriented filesystem paths</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#basic-use">11.1.1. Basic use</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#pure-paths">11.1.2. Pure paths</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#general-properties">11.1.2.1. General properties</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#operators">11.1.2.2. Operators</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#accessing-individual-parts">11.1.2.3. Accessing individual parts</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#methods-and-properties">11.1.2.4. Methods and properties</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#concrete-paths">11.1.3. Concrete paths</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="pathlib.html#methods">11.1.3.1. Methods</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="os.path.html">11.2. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.path</span></tt> &#8212; Common pathname manipulations</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="fileinput.html">11.3. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">fileinput</span></tt> &#8212; Iterate over lines from multiple input streams</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="stat.html">11.4. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">stat</span></tt> &#8212; Interpreting <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">stat()</span></tt> results</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="filecmp.html">11.5. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">filecmp</span></tt> &#8212; File and Directory Comparisons</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="filecmp.html#the-dircmp-class">11.5.1. The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">dircmp</span></tt> class</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="tempfile.html">11.6. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">tempfile</span></tt> &#8212; Generate temporary files and directories</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="tempfile.html#examples">11.6.1. Examples</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="glob.html">11.7. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">glob</span></tt> &#8212; Unix style pathname pattern expansion</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="fnmatch.html">11.8. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">fnmatch</span></tt> &#8212; Unix filename pattern matching</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="linecache.html">11.9. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">linecache</span></tt> &#8212; Random access to text lines</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html">11.10. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">shutil</span></tt> &#8212; High-level file operations</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#directory-and-files-operations">11.10.1. Directory and files operations</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#copytree-example">11.10.1.1. copytree example</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#archiving-operations">11.10.2. Archiving operations</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#archiving-example">11.10.2.1. Archiving example</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="shutil.html#querying-the-size-of-the-output-terminal">11.10.3. Querying the size of the output terminal</a></li>
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<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="macpath.html">11.11. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">macpath</span></tt> &#8212; Mac OS 9 path manipulation functions</a></li>
</ul>
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<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#module-os" title="os: Miscellaneous operating system interfaces."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">os</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Operating system interfaces, including functions to work with files at a
lower level than Python <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-file-object"><em class="xref std std-term">file objects</em></a>.</dd>
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="io.html#module-io" title="io: Core tools for working with streams."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">io</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Python&#8217;s built-in I/O library, including both abstract classes and
some concrete classes such as file I/O.</dd>
<dt>Built-in function <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#open" title="open"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">open()</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>The standard way to open files for reading and writing with Python.</dd>
</dl>
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